We know our products inside and out. Our marketing descriptions seem perfectly clear and straight forward to us. Google decided to pose this question to some random passers-by:" What is a browser?"

You can see from the video that very few people knew the answer. Most of them confused ‘browser’ with ’search engine’ partly because the guy asking the question  was from Google.

After you get a chuckle from the responses, think deeper to the question behind the question. Google developed a new browser called Chrome to compete with Firefox and Internet Explorer, the two leading browsers. If their potential clients don’t even know what a browser is, they won’t be receptive to any claims that Google may make about why their product is better.

We can all relate to this dilemma. Even the most mundane product or service requires us to speak the same language as our clients. Educating them makes them better able to understand the value we bring vs. our competition. But this education must be in terms that the client can understand, not in acronyms and product-speak. Take your marketing messages  on the road. Practice them with friends and family. If you can’t explain it in terms  Aunt Suzy will understand,  chances are, your clients are confused too.

As a former chief of human capital for the CIA, Mike Mears learned a lot about trust. He gathered data over a 16 year period from 8000 leaders. In his book Leadership Elements: A Guide To Building Trust he tells us that you can align every leadership trait into just two categories: Being a Trustworthy leader and Trusting your staff. One of the typical complaints that employees have is a boss who micromanages. I worked for just such a boss. She had a lot of talented and competent people working for her but couldn’t trust them enough to delegate the complete job. Every step along the way had to be approved by her. This approach accomplished one thing - it made her star employees very angry. Many of them requested transfers. The others, stopped taking the initiative and only did the bare minimum that the boss requested. 

Here’s my take on two of  Mear’s recommendations for building trust:

• Set up a feedback system to ensure that there is two-way communication between you and your team. Make it ‘no fault’ meaning be prepared to hear bad news and assure your team that there won’t be ramifications for honesty. This can be as simple as having a periodic one-on-one with each employee to discuss project status. One of the discussion points would be how you’re perceived as a leader.
• Set clear expectations with your team. What type of decisions can they make alone vs. those that you would like input on. Your goal is to get to the point with each employee where they are able to make 95% of the decisions that relate directly to their assignment.
• Be consistent. Don’t confuse  your employees by micro-managing on Mondays, and delegating everything on Tuesdays. If there are projects that you need to keep a closer eye on, explain that to your team along with the rationale.

Building trust requires daily vigilance and confidence in yourself as a leader. When you master this skill, your employees will say you’re the best boss they ever had.

The Wall Street Journal reviews Tom Davneport’s book "Competing on Analytics: The New Science of Winning." In it, Mr. Davenport recommends that we stop winging it  when we  make decisions and instead base them on data and information. I have a math degree and worked in the technology field so I do love numbers and data, but there have been many times when my ‘gut feeling’  proved to be right.

I purchased my Toyota Prius during the time that their popularity shot up and there were massive shortages and waiting lists. When I went to my local dealer, they didn’t even have a car for me to test drive. The best they could do was to put me on a 6 month waiting list.  I checked several online resources and found a lot of data to support what my dealer had told me.

Based on the facts, I should have just put my name on the list and waited my turn. But one day as I was driving to work, I passed a different car dealer and noticed a Prius exiting the lot. It looked brand new. Maybe this was someone who had waited six months but my gut told me that  this dealer knew something the others didn’t. I called them immediately and found out that they were the top sellers for the previous year and were being rewarded by getting more inventory. I was able to purchase my car that day!

Here are some guidelines for making better decisions:

• Arm yourself with as much information as possible so that you know what your options are.
• If there are multiple people involved in the decision, ensure that each person knows their role
• Get some differing opinions. If everybody thinks the same way, the quality of your solutions goes way down
• Don’t assume that everyone thinks logically. They don’t . They bring their own opinions and experiences which can help or hinder your thought process
• Rely on your ‘gut feeling’ after you’ve done your research, not before.

Finally, I believe that it’s better to be proactive and make a decision even if it’s not the optimum. Letting an issue resolve itself is usually the least effective course of action.

Those frugal folks over at Cheap Chic Weddings have announced this year’s winner of the Toilet Paper Wedding Dress Contest. These creations defy the imagination. The winners get to be permanently displayed at the Ripley’s Believe it or Not Museum.

On one of my recent Fun Friday posts, we poked fun at the times when we receive far too much information in response to a simple question. Today, I want to focus on a more serious aspect. I’ve recently become the owner of an iPhone. It all started when I attempted to upgrade my wireless plan to increase the number of minutes. I know for some of you this is no big deal, but I was on a plan which was so old, it was no longer offered by AT&T. I resisted upgrading because it was a really, really cheap plan. During my discussions with the sales rep, I discovered that not only was my calling plan obsolete but that the new plan could not be assigned to my Palm Treo. They offered me some rebates and discounts so I decided to upgrade to the iPhone. This was in mid-May and although I knew that the new iPhone would be coming out in mid-June, I couldn’t be without my phone service for that length of time. 

A few weeks later, I was reading the paper and saw an article which said that there was a $100 credit available at the Apple store for people in my situation. The article went on to say that the credit wasn’t really valuable because of the price points at the Apple store but I’m a power shopper and I knew I would have no problem spending the credit.

When I got to the store instead of jumping right and asking for my credit, I told the salesperson that I had heard about a credit and asked him to explain my options. That’s where the value of listening first rather than speaking first really came home to me. The salesperson explained that one of my options was to receive store credit. Another option was to take $100 off of my bill and a third option, which was the one I chose was to trade-in my phone for the new one for a small restocking fee. The store was very busy at the time that I went in and I have no doubt that had I made the assumption that there was only one option, they would have accommodated me. But because I listened to their position first, I got a much better deal.

Lots of times when we have meetings with our bosses or clients or suppliers, we practice our side of the conversation in advance. We imagine what we’re going to say in response to their objections or their requirements. The problem is that we’re playing both parts in that internal conversation. In reality, we don’t really know what they’re going to say. Try listening first, you may be pleasantly surprised.